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ShelterBox Helps Typhoon Survivors in Philippines

Jose and Protacia Ongcoy, a married couple in their late seventies who lost everything to Typhoon Bopha at the beginning of December in front of their new shelter, Philippines, January 2013.

Terrified for her children as the heavy rains and violent winds thrashed down on her home in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, 32-year-old Marizmer Marquez hunted for a safe place to hide her baby and second youngest child as she feared her home collapsing. Knowing that Typhoon Bopha had cut the power hours before, Marizmer decided to hide baby Rodolfo in the fridge and Injeto in the washing machine to give them the best protection against the destructive storm. She took cover in the house with her husband Rodolfo and eldest child and waited until it passed.

‘Once the weather calmed, they saw that their house had been severely damaged to the point that it’s still unlivable but they told me at least they were safe, unharmed and all together,’ said ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) member Alice Jefferson (UK).

The family had been living in a makeshift structure made out of debris, like hundreds of thousands of other people, when a SRT found them in Compostela Valley on 26 December, almost three weeks after Bopha struck.

‘Their home was stronger than the majority of other homes in eastern Mindanao as it was made out of concrete but they do not have the money at the moment to start rebuilding it,’ continued Alice.